Well.... it turns out it won't be just a week of experimental goodies..... Let’s make it longer!
This next piece is related more to my home.
It’s about longing...and of course that's why it's called "almost 5:26:85"
I am obsessed with numbers….And guess what…the numbers in the title represent my birth date! :>
However, this is not about myself, or my home, or even Bulgaria. It’s more about the whole Balkan region and the history, culture, and spirit of Balkan People. If you haven’t visited Eastern Europe yet, you should, because it is a very magical and mystical place that carries deep energy. I can go on and on about the beautiful nature, the amazing food, and complex characters that one encounters when he/she goes to that region. The truth is that you have to check it out for yourself!
Back to the film. In order to create the feeling of exhaustion and yearning I use repetition and rhythm. I calculated carefully every shot and mathematically planned the cuts. In addition I also considerably paid attention to the audio rhythm. The song you hear in the beginning and middle of the film is the Bulgarian version of a popular Roman song called "Ederlezi". I use in the very beginning of the project the amazing sounds of Bulgarian language to create cool glitches. Excuse my bad singing towards the middle, I did attend singing lessons two years later…oh well, may be I should have done it earlier…. At the end you will hear the original song “Ederlezi” composed by Goran Bregovic
you are almost there…. but it slips every time…..until you let go
blackout
The first experimental piece I decided to post today is far away from being poetic..... The reason is simple: from time to time I feel the urge to look away from the complications in my inner world and look into the dark deep eyes of the surrounding reality. The story behind this short film called "BLACKOUT" is a common one. It was very natural for me to reflect the current events of the day plus at that time my mind was very preoccupied with journalism and the state of the media in the United States. This short piece is speaking about blackout in the political, religious, and communications sense. It is also about my personal blackout>>> about the many times I've been in awe because of the strange things that happen in our world and my inability to deal with it. I purposefully used a lot of different footage sources (including some I shot myself) and edited it together in such a way that the viewer is provoked to be as much focused as possible. One needs to try hard to gather the important information regardless the many distractions. In addition, I used different kinds of filters to create one gritty, aggressive, compelling look. My favorite aspect of this project is the soundtrack. I used three tracks in total. The first one that you can hear in the beginning of the piece is by an anonymous artist and I got it from a free database online. The second one is by Blues Brothers and is called "John the Revelator". The third one (the out of space sound you hear throughout the whole piece) is by ESEM, a Bulgarian idm artist. The track is called "report machine" and was perfect for the feeling I was going after.
p.s. I am trying to fix the comments function but till then send me your thoughts at sasha.stefanova@gmail.com
p.s. I am trying to fix the comments function but till then send me your thoughts at sasha.stefanova@gmail.com
Philip Solomon
I am back….and full of summer freshness. I decided this week to be the EXPERIMENTAL week and I want to open it with some info about one of the most influential individuals in my life >>>
PHILIP SOLOMON.
I can hardly describe the experience of seeing Solomon’s films, but if I tried it would sound something like this:
Imagine that you are looking at one of your favorite pieces of art, the one that gets profoundly under your skin and speaks to your soul in an exquisite and spiritual way and only you can understand and feel the deep vibe it sends you. Now imagine the intensity of 24 of your favorite pieces of art projected in front of your eyes for a second. Each of them building the ultimate structure that carries the most powerful meaning and emotion straight into your heart and mind…..Kind of close, but not really….And I believe Solomon’s art is one of those things in life, like love, or grief, or looking into your child’s eyes, that cannot be explained…they just need to be experienced. Here are some of the stills from Philip’s films:
If you want to learn more about his films click HERE.
Also a part of an INTERVIEW, that I specifically enjoyed:
"Then I really started out on my own when I took a Bolex out into the night and found this button that no one had shown me how to use. The T/I time exposure button. I started to do these time exposures quite accidentally, not quite knowing what I was doing. I got back this roll of film shot at night, with about a second of footage that looked like it was the middle of the afternoon. That just floored me. It opened up new possibilities for experimentation and then expression. That’s the way my work often evolves. I’ll bump into a technique and then find a way to use the technique expressively, essentially.
One of the problems that I am seeing now with many filmmakers is a kind of fetishization of technique for technique’s sake. Like using hand processing just to give their films an avant-aura, an anti-digital, funky, handmade, lo-fi patina. Easy-baked “artful” meaningless facades. They must have by now a broken shutter program for video (laughs). I’ve heard they have 35mm cameras that have switches to give it that broken shutter look, where all highlights vertically streak."
Last but not least, here is a project I did after the first time I saw Solomon’s films. It is a very simple handpainted film {my first experimental assignment that was givent to me by David Gatten, another great filmmaker that you will hear about later}. It's nothing special but it's made with great love and gratitude.
"Exquisitely inspired"
PHILIP SOLOMON.
I can hardly describe the experience of seeing Solomon’s films, but if I tried it would sound something like this:
Imagine that you are looking at one of your favorite pieces of art, the one that gets profoundly under your skin and speaks to your soul in an exquisite and spiritual way and only you can understand and feel the deep vibe it sends you. Now imagine the intensity of 24 of your favorite pieces of art projected in front of your eyes for a second. Each of them building the ultimate structure that carries the most powerful meaning and emotion straight into your heart and mind…..Kind of close, but not really….And I believe Solomon’s art is one of those things in life, like love, or grief, or looking into your child’s eyes, that cannot be explained…they just need to be experienced. Here are some of the stills from Philip’s films:
If you want to learn more about his films click HERE.
Also a part of an INTERVIEW, that I specifically enjoyed:
"Then I really started out on my own when I took a Bolex out into the night and found this button that no one had shown me how to use. The T/I time exposure button. I started to do these time exposures quite accidentally, not quite knowing what I was doing. I got back this roll of film shot at night, with about a second of footage that looked like it was the middle of the afternoon. That just floored me. It opened up new possibilities for experimentation and then expression. That’s the way my work often evolves. I’ll bump into a technique and then find a way to use the technique expressively, essentially.
One of the problems that I am seeing now with many filmmakers is a kind of fetishization of technique for technique’s sake. Like using hand processing just to give their films an avant-aura, an anti-digital, funky, handmade, lo-fi patina. Easy-baked “artful” meaningless facades. They must have by now a broken shutter program for video (laughs). I’ve heard they have 35mm cameras that have switches to give it that broken shutter look, where all highlights vertically streak."
Last but not least, here is a project I did after the first time I saw Solomon’s films. It is a very simple handpainted film {my first experimental assignment that was givent to me by David Gatten, another great filmmaker that you will hear about later}. It's nothing special but it's made with great love and gratitude.
"Exquisitely inspired"
happy birthday
This is a special weekend. As you might know Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has a birthday on the 19th and there are around 280 people that are putting themselves under house arrest (including my dear friend Jeffrey Hellman) in order to bring awareness to the violation of human rights that is taking place in Burma. I will be filming Jeff’s house arrest for the documentary that he and I are working on. After the house arrest our documentary crew will be going for a conference in Washington DC and then for a candle vigil in front of the UN at NYC. More information about the documentary you can find here.
On more personal note I want to tell you how lucky I was through the years to work with people (including Danny Schechter/Globalvision and DN!) who really care deeply about important matters. And though the world around me is trying to transform me into a cynical consumer these individuals give me hope that in fact the principles I grew up with are valued worldwide. Thank you.
This is a recent interview with freedom fighter Han Lin - also very inspiring and passionate individual.
celeritas~~~the swiftness of light *
today i decided to go more into detail on why i chose to call this blog prism heart and how one can play with light. long before i knew i will be doing films or anything related to manipulation of images i was fascinated by physics and mathematics. yes, physics has always been my philosophy. for example my interpretation of Newton’s three laws has been the usual source of peace of mind and the usual answer when being asked in what i believed. sometimes however, i decide not to be sure of anything just because i like to be without any boundaries. one of the few things though that continuously keeps coming back to me with a sense of "security”, is light; light and its transformations, its trickery, and power over our mind. our vision is light and we mainly decide what is reality depending on it. so what a better way to examine and explore reality but through vision, namely light? prisms refract light, they alter light, they segment light, they veer light, they play with light….and…prisms are found in film cameras. here is a photo from the plan for a website i plan to make one day.
this bad drawing of a prism became an essential emblem for me through time and i like it mainly because of the texture of the prism. it looked to me very organic and very gritty and reminded me of a heart. i also remembered one of my favourite books – the little prince and one of the most famous Exupery’s quotes: “and now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” and i thought that combining the power of light and the power of the heart is a good path for someone like me…or like you. and just thinking about it, the real and the unreal, the visible and invisible, and having the opportunity to tweak and play with light makes me feel at the right place….it’s that simple this is a sculpture I made, that was inspired by my interest in prisms,light,deserts(little prince)...and practicality. it's a piece that can serve as a domestic light, it's made of wood and has a glass prism on top that in fact reflected unexpectedly exquisite patterns....sorry you can't see much from this video...
p.s. many thanks to sanq who reminded me about physics and heart stuff ;}
* check out the story about c = celeritas
this bad drawing of a prism became an essential emblem for me through time and i like it mainly because of the texture of the prism. it looked to me very organic and very gritty and reminded me of a heart. i also remembered one of my favourite books – the little prince and one of the most famous Exupery’s quotes: “and now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” and i thought that combining the power of light and the power of the heart is a good path for someone like me…or like you. and just thinking about it, the real and the unreal, the visible and invisible, and having the opportunity to tweak and play with light makes me feel at the right place….it’s that simple this is a sculpture I made, that was inspired by my interest in prisms,light,deserts(little prince)...and practicality. it's a piece that can serve as a domestic light, it's made of wood and has a glass prism on top that in fact reflected unexpectedly exquisite patterns....sorry you can't see much from this video...
p.s. many thanks to sanq who reminded me about physics and heart stuff ;}
* check out the story about c = celeritas
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